Monday, May 12, 2008

Duffy - Warwick Avenue

Welsh singer Duffy has been a big hit in Europe for a while. Her debut CD, "Rockferry," is being released in the US tomorrow.

The Chronicle did a capsule review in yesterday's Pink Pages describing her as "an exact cross between Ronnie Spector and Dusty Springfield". The little man was jumping up and down and applauding.

They also ran an AP story about Duffy and her album (kind of a combination backgrounder and album review) today.

I predict it will be a matter of minutes after its release before people compare the track, "Mercy," to Amy Winehouse's "Rehab" -- partly due to Duffy's repeated, "Yeah, yeah, yeah" (as opposed to Winehouse's "No, no, no"), and partly due to a kind of retro 1960s "wall of sound" influence.

As far as "Mercy" goes as a single, it's okay. A little too "one-note" (or even "one-chord") for me to listen to a whole, whole lot. It was a free download at iTunes a few weeks ago, and the song has popped up in the background of several TV shows recently (or, at least, in their commercials).